FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT HAZARDOUS WASTE - PAGE 4

Q: How do I disperse of paint cans that still have paint in them? The landfills will not take them. I do not want to do anything to damage the environment, but this old paint is stacking up. B.T.B., Poquoson A: By late 1993 or early 1994, it's hoped that the Virginia Peninsulas Public Service Authority will have locations accepting household hazardous waste, like paint cans, for containment and hauling to a disposal facility, says Frank Miller, authority executive director.

Where some people see a problem, others see an opportunity. Pollution is certainly a dilemma, one of society's most serious. But there may be big profits for people who can clean up the mess made by others. The increasing number of government environmental regulations are helping to make pollution control a growth industry. Even without government help, there's so much to be cleaned up that it was inevitable that someone would find a way to make money doing it. More localities are turning to private firms to handle their municipal waste, and the solid waste business is one of the biggest among pollution control companies.

The fight to save Hampton's Fort Monroe next year could be made slightly easier under a bill making its way through the General Assembly. The bill, filed by Hampton legislators, is aimed at preventing the federal government from closing the Army base and returning the land to the state unless it pays the full cost of cleaning up all hazardous waste. Fort Monroe, which was spared from a threatened closure last year, is littered with buried unexploded ordnance dating back to the Civil War. The high cost of cleaning up that ammunition has been a key reason the base has remained open in recent years.

A federal judge ruled Wednesday night that nine more "ghost ships" from the James River Reserve Fleet may be sent to England for disposal, dismissing the complaints of environmentalists on largely technical grounds. The long-awaited court ruling marks a major victory for the U.S. Maritime Administration, which is struggling to dispose of more than 100 obsolete, environmentally hazardous ships. The maritime agency, known as MARAD, has said it must be permitted to scrap ships overseas because there is not enough capacity in domestic yards to do all the work.

Of the thousands of gallons of paint the Navy throws out every year, much is merely out-of-date and can be recycled into a usable condition at one-tenth the cost of throwing it out. Faced with such a choice, a local Naval supply unit has decided to "go green" and save big money in the process. The decision is the result of a recently completed and successful test by Norfolk's Naval Supply Center of the feasibility of recycling or restoring paint previously earmarked for disposal.

Downtown residents aren't happy that a train car full of deadly nuclear waste is coming back to Newport News. But most say they can understand why Idaho rejected the shipment via a federal judge's order, and why it might be getting tired of being a radioactive waste dump. And many believe that having to deal with the knotty problem of nuclear waste storage and disposal is one of the costs of continuing to court a strong military presence in Hampton Roads. "We fight for having the bases here and the ships here," said Florence White, manager of the St. James Terrace Apartments at 30th Street and West Avenue.

In its plans to destroy 20-year-old stocks of chemical weapons, while at the same time hoping to produce new ones, the U.S. government could be pushing its credibility with the public right over a cliff. The Army is the primary agency responsible for disposing of some 30,000 tons of old rockets, bombs, shells and bulk canisters filled with mustard and nerve gas. Its preferred method is to incinerate them. The procedure is supposed to be environmentally safer than dumping the old chemical weapons at sea, a practice outlawed by Congress in the 1960s.

Tests conducted at a trash-to-fuel plant in Portsmouth failed to discover any more cyanide Tuesday as state investigators continued the search for the person who illegally dumped the material last week. Investigators were trying to find the owner of the now-defunct Virginia Beach company that purchased the 200 pounds of sodium cyanide found at the plant operated by the Southeastern Public Service Authority Friday. "We're having a hard time finding this individual," said Keith Spafford, a hazardous waste officer with the state Department of Emergency Services.

Frances Stanley loves the water. For recreation, she enjoys fishing, boating, sailing skiing and scuba diving. For a hobby, she raises tropical fish. As an undergraduate biology student, she studied water environments. Now, in her job as a planning assistance coordinator for the Middle Peninsula Planning District, Stanley helps area counties protect their water environments through long-term planning. A native of Ashland, she says her early high school interests were directed more toward politics than the environment.

ENGINERRING Mark A. Campbell has joined the consulting engineering firm of Gannett Fleming Inc. in Newport News. He will be responsible for diverse environmental projects for wastewater, stormwater, air quality and solid and hazardous waste. Wesley S. Bonafe, a professional engineer, has joined the engineering and architectural firm of Forrest Coile Associates in Newport News as a project manager. He will concentrate in mechanical, plumbing and fire protection systems.